Thursday, 30 July 2015

Reviewed: Dear Darling by Ellen Faith

I loved the sound of Dear Darling and was so excited to have another beautiful looking Ellen Faith book on my Kindle! Even though I am not a massive fan of books told in diary form, I cannot resist a new book by Ellen and started this one right away. My issue with books told in diary form is that I often find that the supporting characters and anyone but the person writing the diary aren’t developed enough and we don’t feel enough connection between them because we only get one side to the story. Ellen’s previous books have seen her write the most gorgeous of connections between her characters, especially the love interests and I was worried it might be lacking in Dear Darling but who am I to doubt this author because she easily proved me wrong! Dear Darling was fresh, witty and an extremely fun read and diary-writer Ellie has such an authentic voice, making her diary entries a real delight to read. She’s not afraid to express herself with honesty and I really grew to laugh, shout and sympathise along with her through her year of bad dating experiences, highs and lows at work and fun-filled friendships.

The way Ellen writes is just like she is chatting to a friend and that’s what makes her books so accessible and such brilliant reads for me. Dear Darling was no exception and though it took me a little bit of time to get into the story – I felt up until Valentine’s Day the book was a little stilted – I then reached the level of not being able to bring myself to put my Kindle down and wanting these characters as my own friends (and wanting to get to know a certain Mr Donley myself…). Ellie was such a likeable, feisty character and she often had me in fits of giggles at the things she came out with and the way she told her story in her diary. She was full of one-liners which all felt so natural and if I’m honest, she needed to be able to see the funny side of life giving the way it was working out for her, especially romantically. When Valentine’s Day comes about and her model boyfriend Roman proposes… a threesome, Ellie realises her life might not be going quite where she would like it to be and enough is enough. Ellie throws herself into life and that’s where the fun really begins.

There was so much to love about Dear Darling I don’t even know where to start. Ellie has such a great friendship with Gina and Hannah which we get to see all through this book and they livened the story up so much. There was so much sarcasm and laughter between them that you couldn’t help but feel uplifted and as we discover, there’s nothing that can’t be solved over a drink or two! I think without her friends Ellie would have been stuck on a downer and this book wouldn’t have had the feel-good vibes it did so Gina and Hannah were a great credit to this book and Ellen delivered their characters so well. I liked getting to know a bit about each of them too which Ellie put across well in her diary and you could see how much she appreciated her friends and the fun they brought with their presence in her life.

Another character I loved getting to know was Adam, Ellie’s boss. Excuse me while I go swoon for a little while… I couldn’t really even say what it was about Adam but I was drawn to his character straight away. He put on a bit of a stand-offish front but there was much more to him that that. Sadly I couldn’t get my claws too far into this fictional character because there was far too much chemistry between Adam and Ellie to get in between. I laughed every time Ellie badly timed her comments about Adam (right when he was just there) and some of the emails she was sending to Gina about him and the dreams she was having… Annoyingly for Ellie, there’s some madwoman (namely Adam’s girlfriend) who was pretty hard to get rid of and talk about a character I loved to hate. Between Saskia, Sophie, Ronan and quite a few others, we weren’t spared characters to bitch about and want to see get their comeuppance, which made this story all the more fun.

Dear Darling is, really, all about your average young woman going about living her life with good friends, bad dates, work stresses, lots of booze and a greasy takeaway or two. This book is so much fun hearing it from the perspective of Ellie who has such a laugh-out-loud funny way of discussing things in her diary. I adored all the antics she got up to with her friends and I was cheering away, hopeful for a romance for her that might actually work out for a change. Seriously though, Adam was freaking hot. And beautiful. And very appealing… I’m thinking there’ll be a queue of crazy readers lining up for their next book boyfriend in Adam ;) Phew. Anyway... I think Ellen should publish Ellie’s diary every year until she’s grey and old because I had so much fun getting to know her character and the craziness that is the way her life transpires. I want to hear all about her friends and her romance and catch up with all the people she is Facebook stalking. I want it all! And I think Ellen may have just won me over with a book told in diary format…

Fun-filled, witty story told in diary form with a book boyfriend to die for(!)